“She really wanted it”: The role Zendaya auditioned for “over and over” and still didn’t get
Zendaya’s early career aspirations now feel a bit silly when compared to her current success, but having become one of the most powerful and buzz-worthy actors of her generation might have come as a shock to those familiar with her earlier work.
Long before she was headlining A24 films and winning Primetime Emmy Awards for her work on an HBO show, Zendaya was best known for her work on Disney Channel originals, with KC Undercover being the standout.
While none of the current shows on Disney’s linear channels ever broke out with an audience beyond younger viewers, the one exception was Descendants, a television film about the children of various iconic villains from the company’s classic stories. It was the rare Disney Channel original production that became a true franchise, with multiple made-for-television sequels and a major attraction at the Disney parks. According to Cornelia Frame, former vice president of casting and talent relations at Disney Channel, being part of Descendants was something Zendaya was very passionate about.
“Zendaya did audition many times for Descendants, and that was a big deal,” she said, “I mean, a really big deal that she auditioned over and over. She really wanted it, and it just ended up not going her way”.
While not getting to be part of the most successful production in Disney Channel’s history must have been disappointing to her, given how much of her career had been dedicated to the channel, Frame said that it all worked out in the end.
“Now that I think about it, I’m like, ‘would Spider-Man have happened right at that same time?’” she said, “Things happen for a reason, and you do often book this other thing that’s amazing when you don’t get something else.”
It was only shortly after the lost opportunity was released that Zendaya was cast as MJ, the new love interest to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was the first of a new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise that took place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was praised for being a superhero film that actually felt like it took place in high school, and benefited from how authentic the chemistry between the young cast was. On a personal front, Holland’s dynamic with Zendaya turned out to be more than just acting, as the pair began dating and were just recently married.
She also appeared in the next two sequels, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home, both of which grossed over $1billion, but it all ended up becoming an afterthought when she claimed an even more important role in the Dune franchise, lead one of HBO’s biggest hits with Euphoria, and broke through as a movie star with her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Challengers.
Given that her 2026 slate of projects include the long-awaited third and final season of Euphoria, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Dune: Part Three, and the highly-anticipated A24 film The Drama alongside Robert Pattinson, it’s safe to say that she’s far surpassed any degree of success that she would have received if she had been aprt of Descendants. That doesn’t mean that a young performer shouldn’t have dreams regarding the projects that they want to be associated with, but in Zendaya’s case, she stood to dream a little bigger.
